By S&S Co. Advocates & Solicitors · Published 19 February 2026 · Informational content, not legal advice
About this article: A general explainer prepared by S&S Co. Advocates & Solicitors on a recurring type of dispute. It does not report a specific judgment or order, names no parties and gives no case citation, so it should not be cited as authority. Law and practice change; please verify against the current statute and primary sources before relying on it.
Many agricultural arrangements in India are informal. A landowner allows a cultivator to work a plot season after season without a written lease. State tenancy and land reform laws, such as the zamindari abolition and land reform statutes and the tenancy Acts of different states, are protective in character, and some give statutory rights to a person who has been in continuous cultivating possession for a specified period, even without a written agreement. The conditions, the qualifying period and the classes of tenant differ from state to state and have been changed by later legislation, so the current law of the particular state must be checked.
Where a cultivator relies on such protection, revenue records, such as entries in the khasra or similar records over successive years, are important evidence. Where the law places the burden on the landowner to show that the possession was only permissive, an informal seasonal arrangement is difficult to prove without documents.
Even where a tenant is protected, the statute may give the landowner a right to resume land on specified grounds and by a specified procedure. An ordinary suit for ejectment may not be the right remedy. Jurisdiction over such disputes often lies with revenue courts, and the civil courts' jurisdiction may be barred.